Plus: R.E.K.HA. returns via the restored ‘Umrao Jaan', Muzaffar Ali’s tribute to bygone Lucknow. Here are this week's top reads from The Reel.
Muzaffar Ali’s Umrao Jaan is one of the definitive films about tawaif culture. The Hindi movie from 1981 has been beautifully restored by the National Film Archive of India and re-released by the PVR Inox multiplex chain. Among the highlights: an incandescent, resplendent Rekha.
In 2023, Scroll interviewed Muzaffar Ali at his home on the outskirts of Delhi, where he spoke of his memoir Zikr and his life-long interest in poetry and beauty.
During the Emergency declared by Indira Gandhi 50 years ago, censorship was rampant. The political satire Kissa Kursi Ka so annoyed Information and Broadcasting minister VC Shukla that he destroyed every existing print. How different are things today, where even the word “lotus” in a film invites scrutiny?
Vishal Furia directs Kajol in a movie about mythology, mothers and monsters.
Laidback plus turbocharged: Joseph Kosinski’s F1, starring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris, is a winner.
Panchayat season 4 is all about whether sarpanch Manju Devi will be ousted by Kranti Dev. Should we care?
Not all returning seasons are tiresome. In fact, Kerala Crime Files improves on its predecessor.
In the web series Mistry, Ram Kapoor plays the Indian version of the OCD-afflicted, multi-phobic detective Adrian Monk.
Deep Cover is a knowingly silly and very entertaining film about improv comedians recruited to infiltrate a criminal gang.
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